Warrior: Predator Short Film Review

★★★★

Starring: #LexsyMckowen, #MariahMaison and #CourtneyLeigh

Directed by: #ChrisRNotarile

Short Film Review by: Alexandra James

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Warrior: Predator, a short film written and directed by Chris. R. Notarile. This sci-fi takes a unique spin on the stereotypical characters, by attempting to breakdown the formulaic monsters and creatures in many science fiction films we see today. Many of these films will include a male protagonist and a male creature, even occasionally a female lead but still a male opponent. However, Notarile has an all-female cast, giving a distinctive twist on the classic predator films. This short focuses on a 16th century native American warrior coming face to face with two predator sisters and is forced to fight for her life in an epic battle, but there can only be one victor.

The first aspect to recognise in this short is the costumes. Although some audience members may be dissecting every detail, for a small budget film, the costumes and makeup on all the characters were great! Its fantastic to see what can be achieved on a small budget production. For me, the designs and detail with each costume was creative and shows that you don’t need loads of money to make an impact, just creativity and an eye for detail. It was also great to find out that the director had made one of the costumes as well! This shows a lot of dedication and passion towards the project and highlights the fact that if you want something bad enough you will find a way to make it happen. With some inspiration of other cosplayers costumes, it was evident that a lot of thought went into this production.

Another element to note is the fact there is no dialogue throughout this piece. Occasionally, this can hinder a film particularly if the storyline is not coherent without any dialogue and it’s needed as an aid to help the audience grasp each scene. However, this was a clear and driven short film, there was a strong storyline which was simple and effective. Great to see a new twist on the predator characters and see strong female lead roles, this is something that is certainly lacking in the film industry, so it was interesting to see the dynamic of both heroine and villain as female, it’s a new and exciting perspective on the predator films. The location was even well scoped out, the incorporation of the cave was able to set this film in the right time frame and isolated the characters away from civilisation, making for intense fight scenes and building the warrior into an independent and fierce character.

Warrior: Predator is a great short film that with just a small budget, was innovative and provided the audience with a fresh perspective on the predator films. It would be interesting to see what can be done with a bigger budget especially as this film was creative and showed a lot of promise, therefore it can go beyond that creative milestone with a bigger budget. This was an enjoyable film that can be explored further and delve deeper into each of the characters and their background which would be great to see.